Rarely does the NFL Draft allow for the perfect intersection of “best player available” and “need” for a team. Some players – like the quarterbacks that littered the top of the first round on Thursday night – fill a need that far surpasses their actual value as a prospect. Yet they have to be picked where they are.

But that intense need for quarterbacks among the top half of the draft allowed the Cincinnati Bengals to smoothly hit the green light at that perfect intersection. Despite trading down from No. 12 to 21 with the acquisition of left tackle Cordy Glenn from Buffalo, the Bengals found themselves being able to choose among the top 15 position players.

Within that group, they filled an immediate need on a drastically improved offensive line by selecting Ohio State center Billy Price.

“You’d like to have 53 guys like that – with his intensity, his football intellect, just his approach to the game,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said.

Immediately after a disappointing 7-9 campaign that saw the Bengals finish last in the league in total offense, owner/president Mike Brown unequivocally stated that the offensive line would be addressed. Eighty-one sacks allowed, along with a woeful 3.8 yards per rush, over the last two seasons made it a fairly obvious group to target.

Glenn was the first major step. Price is the second.

“He’s been well coached,” Bengals offensive line coach Frank Pollack said. “He’s advanced, obviously, with some of the things he’s doing with his hands. He was a lot of fun to watch on tape that way. He’s got to come in and get going. Just again, get him out on the field sooner than later will be great, but have him in the classroom early and start learning our scheme and system and learn to speak our language if you will and get him rolling.”

Price said he is two months away from being cleared to play after surgery to repair a torn pectoral he suffered while performing the bench press at the NFL Scouting Combine. Price and all the Bengals coaches said he will not miss any time in training camp, though he may not be able to work during the organized team activities in May.

The club doesn’t usually draft plug-and-play starters, but the two times they have in the last decade came on the interior offensive line. They took right guard Kevin Zeitler in 2012 at No. 27 overall and traded up in the fourth round for center Russell Bodine in 2014.

“Absolutely. My goal was, again, to finish up my career at Ohio State and transition to the NFL and to set the league on fire from day one,” Price said of his immediate expectations to start. “For me, it’s that expectation to go and earn a starting job, to compete from day one, to be that plug-and-play player at center, guard, whatever the team wanted.”

And Pollack has experience with rookie starters as well, having coached center Travis Frederick (No. 31, 2013) and guard Zack Martin (No. 16, 2014) as rookies while in Dallas and tackle Duane Brown (No. 26, 2008) while in Houston.

“He has similar traits to Travis in where he’s a very strong player, very sound, plays with his hips and feet and hips underneath him,” Pollack said. “He’s a guy you can anchor in front of that quarterback. So valuable from a center position, especially in this division, playing against some big nose guards, interior players. He can really solidify the front of that pocket. With that said, I think he’s very similar to Travis. It’s important. It’s going to be a great add for us.”

Even with 10 more picks scheduled to come over the next two days, the Bengals have overhauled what they viewed as a major weakness with the addition of Glenn and the drafting of Price. While competition through training camp and the preseason will likely dictate the new starters at right guard and right tackle, it’s a group that is already better than a year ago.